Love Lost
by tempewise
Summary: The body of our favorite forensic anthropolist is found in a Vegas hotel.  The Vegas CSI's must investigate.  The timeline of this whole thing is crap as I have bits of CSI that I love and I refuse to put Morpheus into this story.
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own Bones. Never have. If I ever do, Bones and Booth will live happily ever after and Hodgins and Angela will have the cutest quarter-asian/half-Hodgins baby in the world.  
I don't own CSI. Never have. If I ever do, Gil Grissom will return to the show and be the most attractive man on television and Sara Sidle (hyphen Grissom?) will be the coolest vegetarian on television (like she is now, so no change there.)**

Vegas

Doctor Albert Robbins looked down at the body on his table. He was never happy to see a "patient" in his line of work, but the lovely woman that lay peacefully awaiting autopsy made him especially somber.

She was a Jane Doe found starved to death in a nice hotel room on the strip and he couldn't think of what he found so troubling about her. He tried to tell himself that she was just another model that had taking her anorexia too far but he knew that wasn't it. It was true, she was beautiful but not in the hard, cruel way that was the style these days. She had a clean beauty. There was no evidence of plastic surgery. With only a clear coat of polish, her nails gave no impression of being professionally manicured. Her face was so familiar. He knew that he'd seen her before. _Who was she?_

"We got a match on her fingerprints." Doc Robbins started. He'd been so deep in thought that he hadn't heard his friend enter the morgue. He looked up at Dr. Gil Grissom and drew his eyebrows together.

"Who is she?"

"I had an excuse not to recognize her," Grissom said, "but I'm surprised at you. The most brilliant forensic anthropologist the world has yet to know and you didn't?"

"Dr. Temperance Brennan is on my table." It wasn't a question. He looked down at her and felt the need to sit down. He grabbed the cane that was ever present and asked Gil to follow him to his office. Once in his chair he opened a drawer and pulled out one of his prized possessions- an autographed copy of "Bred in the Bone" by the very woman in the next room. He opened the cover and ran his fingers along her signature and, as Grissom watched, turned the book over and looked at her photograph on the book jacket.

"You never told me that you'd met her." Grissom said, surprised.

"I haven't," Dr. Robbins replied. "I sent away for this a couple years back. I don't know why I didn't recognize her, Gil. Dr. Brennan is one of my heroes. She's- she was half my age and three times as brilliant. I had better finish her autopsy."

Gilbert Grissom watched his friend put the book back in the drawer and take out his Polaroid. Robbins shut the drawer and stood up.

"Are you going to be okay, Al?"

"Hmm? Oh. Of course. It's just a shock is all." He went back to where he'd left the body of the brilliant anthropologist. "I just don't get it. How'd she let herself… ?" He sighed and shook his head. "Never mind. Just find out what happened, okay?"

Gilbert Grissom was surprised to see his friend so affected by the young woman on the autopsy table. He'd seen the man whistle, sing, even play the air guitar over a body. It was eerie to see the man so obviously shaken. "Of course I will," he promised. As he left the morgue he heard his friend sigh as he picked up his camera and took a picture of the brilliant scientist for his celebrity album.

Washington D.C.

Special Agent Seeley Booth sat at his desk with his head in his hands. It had been a month since he'd told his partner, Temperance Brennan, that he wasn't in love with her anymore. Since that night, "Bones" seemed to have disappeared completely. Agent Booth slammed his fist onto desk for what seemed like the millionth time in the past thirty days. _Where the hell is she?_, he thought to himself. He ran through the events of that night again.

She'd been acting out of character- worried, anxious, emotional. They had been working on a case about a murdered doctor and Bones had been getting too emotionally attached to the victim, finding unsettling parallels in the lonely life led by the victim and her own. She'd even forced Booth to stare at the doctor's picture insisting that it was _her_ in the picture. Booth had seen a slight similarity but when he said that to Temperance she'd just stormed out of his office frustrated. He found her in the rain and grabbed her just in time to prevent her from being struck down by a car in a bad neighborhood. She was frantic, she'd discovered the circumstances of the doctor's death and explained it to him in a rush. In the next breath she confessed to him that she did care for him.

Booth shook his head and cursed at himself. _You idiot. She loves you. Why won't you let her love you? Hannah._ He thought of his ex. He'd told Brennan that he loved Hannah Burley, his reporter girlfriend, and that he wasn't going to leave her. Brennan cried. Bones cried. Bones is never supposed to cry, he thought to himself. The next day she was gone. When he came to the Jeffersonian to check on her and she wasn't there he just supposed she had taken a day off. He hunted down her boss, and his ex-lover, Dr. Camille Saroyan. She was inspecting the bones of a Bronze Age hunter when she looked up and saw him. The smile that she gave him disappeared when he asked her when he asked where Bones was.

"What? She's not with you? When she didn't show up an hour ago I figured you'd taken her for coffee or something."

He fought the urge to shout. "She hasn't been here at all today and you didn't do anything?"

"Whoa, Seeley. Just calm down. She left the report for the dead doctor case on my desk so I just assumed… Wait. What happened?"

"What's going on? Brennan's not answering her phone and I've called like three thousand times…" Angela Montenegro's voice trailed off as she saw the expressions on the faces of her coworkers. She paled. "Oh no. What's happened? Is Temperance all right? Has there been an accident?"

Booth walked over to Angela and put his hand on her shoulder. "No, Angela. There's been no accident." He explained the past night's events to the women and his worries that Bones had taken it the wrong way. When he finished his story Angela reached over and pinched him.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"You ass! She finally worked up the courage to tell you how she feels about you and the best you could come up with was that Hannah's 'not a consolation prize?' What is wrong with you?"

"Calm down, Angela," Cam soothed. She turned to Booth and her eyes flashed. "She's right, though. You could have handled that differently. Let's not worry about that now, though. We have to find her."

They didn't find her. It had been weeks and there was no trace of her. They'd gone to her apartment that day and she didn't answer the door. Fearing the worst, Booth broke down the door only to find her apartment immaculate as always. Her clothes, toothbrush, and a suitcase were missing but that was all. She hadn't taken her car but a taxi had been ordered for her earlier in the morning and it had taken her to the airport. Unfortunately, if she'd flown anywhere she'd not used her credit card to pay for her ticket.

For the next two weeks, Agent Booth had been so worried Dr. Brennan that he'd been blind to his own deteriorating relationship with Hannah. She left him and went back to Pakistan where she had things to actually report.

Booth thought about Hannah and didn't feel particularly beat up about her absence, He thought about what his Dr. Sweets had said when he'd talked to him about the exchange between him and Bones and Hannah's leaving him. Sweets had said that maybe Booth had never loved Hannah to begin with. That he may have just thought he had because he found Hannah so soon after Bones' rejection. A rebound, he'd called it. He suggested that his rejection of Bones might have been a subconscious revenge. He'd hurt her because Bones had hurt him. Booth told Sweets that he was an idiot and left his office but he knew that Sweets was right.

Just as Booth admitted to himself that he had been an ass and that he had to make it up to Bones his desk phone rang.

"Special Agent Seeley Booth."

"Hello, this is Gil Grissom of the Las Vegas Crime Lab. I'm calling about Dr. Temperance Brennan. Do you have the phone number of her father, Max Keenan?"

Booth's heart pounded in his ears and his hands began to shake as he informed the man on the line that he was Dr. Brennan's partner. "Has something happened? Is she in trouble?"

"I'm sorry to tell you this over the phone, Agent Booth, but I'm afraid we found Dr. Brennan's body last night."

**A/N: As I wrote this story "Won't Get Fooled Again by The Who came on the radio and even though it's the wrong CSI, I was still tickled pink.  
Please review and tell me if I should keep going. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I'm not a pimp or a plantation owner; I don't own anybody.  
Author's Rant: Let me start by thanking you for the kind reviews. I'll continue by lamenting my complete lack of common sense. I've painted myself into a corner. If Brennan is dead, there's no chance of a happy ending! How in the heck am I going to get myself out of this? As I write this I'm as clueless as you guys. I'm going to wing it. Let's go…**

"I'm sorry to tell you this over the phone, Agent Booth, but I'm afraid we found Dr. Brennan's body last night."

Seeley's heart contracted painfully in his chest as he calculated the odds of this all being someone's colossal, sick joke. "Dr… Grissom, you said? Forgive me if I'm out of bounds but you're wrong. Dr. Brenn—_Temperance_ is my partner. I'd know if she were dead. She's not. She can't be."

"Special Agent Booth, I _am_ sorry. We're quite sure it's Dr. Brennan. The fingerprints are a positive match. I understand how painful it is to lose a friend and I couldn't begin to tell you how sorry I am to be the messenger. I know you're still processing the news but could you tell me how to get in touch with Max Keenan? Even if the fingerprints match, I'm sure your people would like to get a personal ID as well."

"It just doesn't make sense. She was physically fit when I saw her. I can't even remember her last cold. How did she die?"

Grissom frowned. This wasn't a common cause of death to report to a family remember. It was much more gruesome than a gunshot wound or car crash. "I'm afraid we found her starved to death."

Booth's lungs burned as he slowly let out the breath he'd been holding while waiting for Dr. Grissom's answer. When he finally spoke, his speech was stilted. "Max Keenan has been unreachable for the past month. He's often travelling. I'll be on the next plane to Vegas. I'll identify her."

Gil was silent for a moment. He could hear the tension in Booth's voice and wondered if it was wise for the FBI man to do the identifying. He sensed there was more to that partnership than met the eye.  
"Alright, Agent Booth, I'll meet you when you get here. Have a safe trip."

After they'd ended their call, Booth sat in his office in a daze. _Have a safe trip. What's the point? There's no one to be safe for anymore. Keep it together, Seeley. You have Parker. You have to stay together for Parker. _Booth looked at the picture he kept in a proud place on his desk: Bones, Parker, and Seeley in a booth at the Founding Fathers. Bones grinned into the camera. Parker smiled up at her from his seat in between her and Booth. Booth sat on the outside with his arm stretched along the back of the seat encircling the group. On the table in front of them was a birthday cake with "Happy Birthday, Bones" scrawled on it in blue icing. The candle was a little wax Brainy Smurf figurine. Max had taken the picture. _Max. I have to get ahold of Max. Dammit, I'll have to tell Angela, too. _

Booth slowly lifted the receiver from the cradle of his office phone and dialed Cam's number.

"Seeley! Any news? We're sort of freaking out on this end."

"Camille… I need you to get everybody together. I'll be there in fifteen minutes."  
Dr. Saroyan's voice caught. "S- Seeley. Please don't say what I think you're going to say." 

"I'll see you soon, Cam."

About 15 minutes later, Agent Seeley Booth found himself in the loft at the Jeffersonian in front of a very tense crowd. Angela, Hodgins, Cam, Sweets, and Daisy were gathered on the small couch. There were other seats available but herds tend to group together when they sense danger.

"As you are all aware-," Booth began. "No. That's not right. We're a family. We can handle anything, right? Even if it seems impossible to overcome?"

Angela looked him the eyes and her own filled with tears. "Oh, God. She's not dead. She's my best friend. I'd feel it."

"I'm so sorry, Ang. I thought I would, too, but they found her."

Camille raised a hand to her mouth. It trembled as she lowered it back to her lap. "Have you seen her? We can't be sure until we've seen her."

"My flight leaves in an hour. I'll go home, pack a bag, and get on a plane to Nevada. I thought I should tell you in person, though."

"Nevada! What the hell was she doing in Nevada? Where?" Angela stood and began to pace.

"They found her in Las Vegas. She was in a hotel room on the strip."

"It doesn't make sense! Was she robbed?"

"No, Angela."

Daisy had been surprisingly quiet up to this point. She tilted her head and asked the question Booth had been dreading.

"How did Dr. Brennan die?"

"Daisy…" Sweets cautioned.

"No. I want to know, too." Angela had stopped pacing and looked Booth square in the face.

Hodgins stood and grabbed Angela's hand. "Angie, I'm not sure you should know everything at once."

Angela looked at her husband. "Do you know? What are you hiding from me, Jack?"

Hodgins squeezed her hand. "I don't know any more than you do but I don't want you to get yourself too worked up over this.

"I _need_ to know. She's supposed to be our baby's godmother."

Seeley sighed and counted down the time he had until his flight. He didn't want to have to tell Angela. He knew that it would hurt her terribly to know what had killed Bones.

"Tell me, Booth. I'll call the Vegas PD If I have to. You'd rather I hear it from you. You know that's the truth."

Booth squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them, he looked straight at Hodgins and told him without words to hold his wife. Hodgins got the message and wrapped his arms around Angela.

"When they found her, she was starved to death."

"Oh, God." Angela's knees buckled and she slumped to the floor.

"Baby. Angie!" Hodgins tilted her head to look into her eyes. She was in shock, shaking violently. As Sweets ran to get help, Booth apologized to Hodgins.

"She would have found out without you. It would have been worse had she called Las Vegas." Hodgins was holding Angela. "You have to go, man. I know it's not going to happen, but I can't help but wish…"

"I know. I keep hoping that when I get there it won't be her. I don't have much time to pack and get to the airport. I'm sorry."

"Just go. We'll be here waiting."

**What am I going to do? What am I going to do? I'm not asking to be coy. I'm panicking. Should I attempt another chapter? UUUUuuuuuuuuuuugggg. **


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